Nation news briefs

CAT SURVIVES 2 EUTHANASIA ATTEMPTS AT UTAH SHELTER: WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) — A stray cat that survived two trips to a Utah animal shelter's gas chamber now has a new home.Officials at West Valley City's animal shelter in Utah say the cat named Andrea hadn't been adopted for 30 days when shelter officials tried to put her to death in October. She survived, so they gassed her again.Shelter officials detected no vital signs and presumed she was dead after the second try, so they put her in a plastic bag in a cooler. But when they checked the bag, they saw she had vomited on herself and had hypothermia but was alive.The shelter then decided to stop trying to kill her."It was just one of those things where they thought this cat obviously really wants to live," West Valley City spokesman Aaron Crim told the Salt Lake Tribune . "Let's give it a chance to find a permanent home."The newspaper reports the cat has since been adopted and shelter officials are investigating why the gassing failed.

IDAHO SPUD TRUCK ROLLS ON SIDE, MASHING POTATOES: IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — A spud-hauling truck has rolled onto its side in Idaho, dropping its cargo like a hot potato.The Idaho State Police says the truck driven by 23-year-old Newman Giles of Rigby crashed Tuesday in Idaho Falls, spilling the potatoes across two Interstate 15 exit ramps. It was hauling a 48-foot farm-bed trailer with the spuds at the time.A spokesman at Eagle Farms says the potatoes were being brought to a plant when the trailer's tires caught the edge of the road, causing the truck to tip on its side in slow motion.The state police say Giles and a passenger were wearing seat belts and were not injuredNYC MAYOR: GIRLFRIEND'S KISS BETTER THAN GAGA'S: NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the world to know that while he might have shared a New Year's kiss with Lady Gaga it was nothing compared with the one he got later from his longtime girlfriend.The 69-year-old politician and the youthful pop star locked lips shortly after leading a Times Square crowd in a final-minute countdown to midnight. They made quite a pair: He was in an old-fashioned American-flag sweater; she had her eyes hidden behind a sparkly mask.When asked about the kiss Tuesday, Bloomberg said he'd "be remiss" if he didn't say "the best kiss of the night came after that," from girlfriend Diana Taylor.Bloomberg also called Gaga "a young lady," noting she's about the same age as his daughter Georgina, who's in her late 20s.CARTER'S ADVICE TO OBAMA: DON'T ALIENATE VOTERS: ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter has some advice for Barack Obama as he gears up for the 2012 election: Don't alienate voters with controversial positions.The Georgia Democrat told The Associated Press on Tuesday that just about everything he did alienated voters, from sealing a treaty to hand over the Panama Canal to establishing diplomatic ties with China.Carter said: "If your main goal is to get re-elected, avoid a controversial subject as much as you can in the first term."Carter also faced Democratic opposition from Sen. Ted Kennedy during his 1980 re-election bid, which he said was a big handicap that Obama won't have.SOURCE: TOILET DENIAL, THEN NY ISLAM CENTER ATTACK: NEW YORK (AP) — A man hurled crude firebombs at an Islamic cultural center in part because he wasn't allowed to use its bathrooms and targeted four other New York-area sites on New Year's Day because of personal grievances, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.The 40-year-old man, of Guyanese descent, was taken into custody Tuesday after he was tracked through a stolen car with Virginia license plates believed to be at the scene of at least two of the attacks Sunday evening on a convenience store, three homes and the cultural center, police said.The man, whose name hadn't been disclosed, made statements implicating himself in the attacks and had personal problems with each location, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said. Two of the targets were homes in Queens, and one was a relative's home in neighboring Nassau County.The man was facing arson-related charges, and it was unclear Tuesday whether the attacks were considered hate crimes, which could bring extra penalties. He has prior arrests for drugs, passing bad checks and weapons possession.